Opposition to CISPA is Growing!

It's day two of "cyber week" in the House, and there is good news to report: opposition to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is growing.

First, conservatives made a big splash over the last several days by vocalizing their strong opposition to how CISPA violates privacy and conservative values. A letter sent to lead sponsors of the bill from the American Conservative Union, Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Liberty Coalition and more, lay out all the many ways CISPA is bad for privacy from its failure to protect sensitive information to its lack of strict government oversight. Also, Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas) wrote an op-ed for The Hill calling CISPA "Big Brother writ large" which he hopes will go the way of the Stop Online Piracy Act, and issued a statement and YouTube video that says CISPA represents the "latest assault on Internet freedom." And last, but certainly not least, libertarian Campaign for Liberty mobilized its members to contact Congress and urge a 'no' vote.

Second, 18 members of the House wrote a letter to CISPA's lead sponsors stating their disapproval of CISPA and its lack of privacy protections. They mention that another iteration of CISPA could surface before the full House of Representatives vote on Thursday or Friday and they demand that it address outstanding problems. Signers include influential members with privacy, tech or national security cred like Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Zoe Lofgren (D —Calif.), Gerald Nadler (D-N.Y.), Scott and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) (see if you can decipher their signatures here.)

Third, the Obama administration has weighed in again with its concerns on CISPA. On a call with the press yesterday afternoon, senior administration officials reiterated their opposition to CISPA. One speaker stated that "companies that run the Internet would no longer be accountable to the laws that protect privacy" and could "disclose very broadly, private sensitive information to the government," Read more about it here.

What's next? Members who want to propose amendments to CISPA must file them by 4:30 today and they will be available on the Rules Committee website soon thereafter. The Rules Committee — which will decide what amendments will get a vote, if any — will meet at 3:00 on Wednesday to make its ruling.

Rwolf

History Repeats:
Government can use CISPA to secretly (certify employees) including those that work for a Government certified cyber self-protected entity—to spy on their certified employer and clients with full immunity from lawsuits if done in good faith. In effect spies spying on spies, even for profit.

U.S. Government is not prohibited from paying any Government Certified self protected cyber entity or Certified Employee part of government forfeited assets or other compensation for providing U.S. Government a corporation’s confidential information and or client information—that otherwise would require a warrant. U.S. Government now contracts on a commission basis (self protected cyber entities) e.g. private government contractors with security clearances to facilitate arrests and Government asset forfeitures. Currently Government can't use evidence obtained through there contractors' illegal warrant-less spying on: Internet activity, private emails, faxes and transmitted electronic files; however that will change if CISPA is passed by Congress. Not surprisingly some of the same private security contractors involved with government asset forfeitures have lobbied Congress to pass CISPA.

Is CISPA a Trojan Horse? CISPA provides “Government Certified "Self Protected Cyber Entities” an incentive to anonymously snitch on their corporate competitors to gain an economic advantage: although CISPA states using a certified cyber status to gain an economic advantage over a competitor is prohibited, however, that appears covertly unstoppable. In either case U.S. Government can use CISPA to accumulate through warrant-less searches, any corporation's confidential and private client information that potentially could be used by a corrupt U.S. Government to extort corporations, politicians and wealthy Citizens. Hitler and his private security Gestapo used this tactic to force corporations to support Nazi policies.

Hitler also promised to use new Nazi laws to go after a corporation's competitors if the corporation supported him. Some of the corporations (Hitler partnered with} were so greedy, they did not see that Hitler was pitting corporations against each other to reduce their combined political power so Hitler could control them. Does Nazi Government Partnership with private corporations sound currently familiar in the U.S.?